Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot. Unless they're joking. Then they're not funny, and they're also an idiot.

The most terrifying thing is that people all over the world are saying on television and in newspapers that these extreme weather events are evidence of something.

Others are then hearing and reading this and thinking, 'It is extremely hot/cold/wet/windy/humid/inclement today. They must be right.'

They're not even a little bit right, but we believe them because humans are hard wired to be stupid.

Our brains actually have trouble with logic and reasoning.

The way we learn stuff was developed thousands of years ago.

You know, back when Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Johnny Depp were just starting out.

Back then there weren't any books. Just like twenty years from now, there's not going to be any books either.

So back in hunter-gatherer times, when the Late Show with David Letterman had first gone to air, and the local car manufacturing industry made money, we used to learn through stories and observation.

We'd see it, and then know it was true.

Which doesn't work so well, when it comes to the more complicated stuff.

During the last few hundred years we have developed new brain abilities, and we do have the capacity to understand more complicated concepts, such as the fact that Madonna is 55 is Johnny Depp is 50, and a few hot/cold days doesn't mean that the planet is about to melt/freeze.

It just takes a little bit of proper thinking, which a lot of people don't want to do.

Scientists have suggested that the frequency and duration of extreme weather events is a result of climate change.

However, to reach this conclusion you have to look at all the extreme weather events, all over the world, over a long period of time.

Not just go outside and comment on how uncomfortable it is, because you're not dressed properly.

With your options being to either tolerate that discomfort on your way to and from your car, or go inside and do something about it. Also, make sure you take a moment to post that comment to Facebook and Twitter.

I'm not sure anyone cares, but that's something else nobody on social media seems to ever worry about. Along with checking that whatever meme their posting is based on logic and fact.

So over 95 per cent of scientists reckon that climate change is a thing, and for me, more than 95 per cent of anything is more than enough. Despite what's happening with the weather.

Say the less than five per cent are right and climate change isn't happening. So we all produce less waste, use fewer resources and become environmentally friendly and stuff anyway, even though we didn't need to save the planet.

Well what's so bad about that?

The air is cleaner, we're all healthier, and there's less rubbish. Oh no, who wants to live in that world? Well, I do.

However, if we do nothing about climate change and the scientists are right, well one benefit is that people who live nowhere near a coastline may soon have ocean front property.

Most people don't believe in climate change for one simple reason. It's far easier to believe that it's not happening.

They like their big cars, and cheap air travel, and keeping as much of their money as possible for themselves.

If climate change is a thing that we have to do something about, however, that's all going to change.

Anyone on television or in a newspaper who's telling us that it's not happening is ignoring all the facts, apart from the fact that we like having lots of stuff.

And we listen to them, because it's so much easier to do nothing.

So it's hot/cold today isn't?

Which proves nothing about climate change, and certainly doesn't mean that it's OK to continue doing nothing about it.

29 comments

does someone have to explain the difference between weather and climate?where did you get the figire that 95% of scientists support climate change? There are no serious scientists who deny it:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/14/1269609/-Climate-change-denying-scientists-er-scientist-getting-a-bit-lonely?fb_action_ids=10151935342232684&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582#

Commenter

skink

Location

Date and time

January 22, 2014, 7:45AM

Oh gee, I'm sorry. I didn't know you had a doctorate like the scientists who debate this for a living. I'll send a letter to the editor to change the title under your name to Doctor. Would a doctorate in weather be sufficient accreditation for you?

People who have no idea about climate change are the reason naive people still deny it. Don't help the problem.

Commenter

AussieA

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January 22, 2014, 8:22AM

You can be interested in an academic way without drawing a conclusion. Some people have concluded the temp is up 1 degree. Some think there are more extreme events. Both are unprovable, because 1 degree is meaningless in a short ten year cycle and extreme events relate to how many cameras are available. However like the ozone hole, it may catch up with us suddenly, when it's already too late. In the case of people planting a lot of trees and putting on solar panels, you may stave off any effects for an extra few decades. Then you and I will go to our graves saying nothing happened.

Commenter

bg

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January 22, 2014, 11:52AM

That's not what I was getting at at all, bg. The author of this article has unequivocally determined by his title that "hot days don't prove climate change". Such a statement really should only be made by scientists qualified to make it. I debate with people regarding climate change all the time, it's human nature to express our opinions to each other and not the basis of my point that I made, but at the same time I don't make such blunt ended comments that signal the end of the discussion like I have solved the whole issue- particularly if I don't have the evidence to back it up.

Commenter

AussieA

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January 22, 2014, 12:57PM

Normally some subeditor provides the story title ...

Commenter

bg

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January 22, 2014, 3:50PM

The reason America is cold is because of weather. The reason the world (on average) is getting hotter is because of climate change. There is a big difference.

Commenter

TheWanderingSupertramp

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January 22, 2014, 8:44AM

Climate change relates to both hot and cold, not just hotter weather.

Commenter

Judas

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January 22, 2014, 8:53AM

@Judas. Weather and climate are not the same thing. Supertramp's did not state that climate change only related to rising temperatures.

Commenter

bio logical

Location

perth

Date and time

January 22, 2014, 3:11PM

Read all the way through & then decide

True story.

The Washington Post

The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the CommerceDepartment yesterday from Consulafft, at Bergen , Norway .. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds. Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.

* * * * * * * * *

I apologize, did I forget to mention that this report was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in TheWashington Post - 92 years ago.

Commenter

ME Again

Location

Perth

Date and time

January 22, 2014, 9:01AM

You seem to have failed to grasp even the most basic premise of this article. The point being made is that outlying events ie; heatwaves and cold snaps and the story you're quoting do not prove or disprove climate change, it is evidence gathered over a long period of time. For example only one of the 10 hottest years on record occurred prior to 2000 and that was 1998.